Deep space exploration orbit design departing from circumlunar orbit of lunar base

A design method for a new kind of deep space mission which departs from a circumlunar orbit of the lunar base is presented in this paper. The difference between this kind of deep space mission and the traditional one is well analyzed. The method of patched conics is employed to divide the mission trajectory into four independent parts. The independent selenocentric segment is designed using a Lambert Problem based method, while the geocentric trajectory from a certain point in three-dimensional space to a fixed excess velocity vector is determined analytically. Then the combination of these segments is optimized via genetic algorithm by minimizing the total velocity increasement. Finally, typically numerical simulations are demonstrated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.